Asheville:(828) 271-4661. A locked padlock Bertie now houses about 935 inmates. State Bureau of Investigation agents say they are examining possible wrongdoing by former Lanesboro officers and cannot discuss the assertions by Vazquezs lawyers. About 45 miles from Charlotte, just beyond a grove of trees, Lanesboro Correctional Institution houses some of the states most violent criminals. RALEIGH, N.C. A prison officer and two inmates were injured during a fight at Lanesboro Correctional Institution Thursday morning, state prison officials said. There, Ortiz and Zelaya-Sorto attacked and seriously injured inmate Christopher Cook. Hands among the dead were found in front of the face or behind the head suggesting defensive positions. Roy Cooper has asked him to review the circumstances "to ensure this doesn't happen again.". On Dec. 28, a guard at Brown Creek Correctional Institution, a medium-security prison located adjacent to Lanesboro, was accused of trying to smuggle marijuana and painkillers into the facility to give to an inmate there. But it was sometimes hard for prison officers to find those shanks, Parsons said. His dismissal letter states that he helped create conditions that increased the chance of death or serious bodily injury to employees, inmates or the public. The incident was reported around 1:30 p.m. at the Lanesboro Correctional Institution in Polkton. Are there more visitors than ever in Bradenton, Sarasota as peak season approaches? Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. 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On the morning of Sept. 28, 2012, the day that Turner was stabbed to death, there were rumors of potential violence. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. There are no national standards for minimum staffing at prisons, experts say. And they say pay increases approved by the legislature in 2015 will also help with recruiting. "We've got a lot of folks who are not staying with us.". Turner, who lived in D pod with the other three inmates, went through the door behind them. And with Wall's signal after the fact, telling (Vazquez) essentially to be quiet, I don't know what other inference you can draw from it.. Please enter valid email address to continue. Early on the morning of Nov. 15, 2013, Lanesboro had just four officers in the chow hall to oversee the 100 inmates who were there for breakfast, McCoy said. Some of the DVDs showed fights between inmates, Bridges said. Lanesboro Correctional Institution Lanesboro Correctional Institution is located in Polkton North Carolina. He reportedly belonged to Cooks gang and planned to go to his defense. A lock ( Your morale goes down," she said. A prison system veteran who earned about $41,000 a year, Wall was one of Lanesboros four unit managers, overseeing a block with nearly 300 inmates. The incident was reported around1:30 p.m. at theLanesboro Correctional Institution in Polkton. It's as simple as that.". Guards allegedly opened Inmate Gregorio Cortez Vazquez pleaded guilty earlier this month to second-degree murder in Turners stabbing death and was sentenced to up 16 additional years in prison. In an 11-week period in early 2016, more than 15 staff members left Lanesboro under suspicion of wrongdoing, Mitchell said. For months, Bridges tried to make sense of what she saw at the murder scene and on surveillance video. One of Brazil's most notorious gangs, the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), is said to have formed in 1993 as a response to the event. They visited the office for about 15 minutes. Lanesboro Correctional Institution - Wikipedia All three of the Latino inmates had sharp weapons. The state has changed the prisons leadership several times in recent years. The first inmates arrived in January 2004. It was shocking to see the place wasnt being supervised with more of the restrictions that youd expect in a prison, she said. The weapons were found nearly a year and a half after the deadly fight, and forensic tests did not tie any of them to the attacks on Turner and Cook. Polkton is 45 miles southeast of Charlotte. His name has not been released. The Killing Consensus: Homicide Detectives, Police that Kill and Organized Crime in Sio Paulo, Brazil. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dana Washington, of the U.S. Attorneys Office in Charlotte, is in charge of the prosecution. Turner, 35, had also been serving time for second-degree murder and was scheduled for release in 2017. At no time did (I) knowingly or willingly allow any inmate to attack any inmate, he wrote. NC prison officers skip security rounds, endanger inmates | Raleigh Some facts related to events surrounding the murder of inmate Wesley Turner are drawn from prison surveillance video obtained by the Observer. The suits also contend that Wall facilitated attacks on two other inmates the same year Turner was killed. Attorneys for Vazquez said their client never told them what led to the fight. Hours after the murder, video also shows Wall gesturing to the killer. Next is Joel Sour Ortiz, who is in prison for armed robbery and shooting a motorist in the head during a road-rage attack on Raleighs beltline. Its the few who dont who make problems for everybody.. Surveillance video from that day offers a look behind the prisons walls: Inmates mill about in a hallway, some high-fiving, others hugging or bumping fists, as if they are high-school students changing classes. Its so dangerous that some officers begin their work days by asking those coming off the previous shift how many assaults theyve just seen. Before he left in 2016 to oversee 15 state prisons in western North Carolina, Mitchell told the Observer: Im certain there are people involved with gang activity that work here.. The FBI investigated the case. "It's not safe," McCoy said. New documents, interviews and a lawsuit paint a picture of a place where some officers seemed to collaborate with gang-affiliated inmates and gave them free rein to roam. But after investigating for more than a year, the SBI closed the case. Corrections officers flocked to the scene after the stabbings, but only one shank was recovered. Later, investigators found bloody weapons hidden in the ceiling of Walls old office. [25] Since the massacre, Brazil's federal government has passed new legislation to reform the prison system, all of which has yet to be enforced.[26]. [9] It's unclear whether better staffing would have saved Callahan's life. The. The lawsuit being litigated at Charlottes federal courthouse this week was brought by Stacey Wynn, an inmate who suffered serious injuries following two November 2011 assaults at Lanesboro. All three of the convicted inmates have been transferred to other state prisons. If Cooks DNA had turned up on any of the shanks in Walls office, that could have helped tie them to the attack. In a court filing, he said he never facilitated attacks. Zelaya-Sorto pulls out a shank a handmade knife from inside his jumpsuit and lunges at Cook. Prosecutors later dismissed the charge because of problems with the credibility of witnesses. But prison officials did release the monthly figures, which show that the prison had 211 officers available to work in April. The shank didnt belong there. They were planning to go to that unit to settle a dispute with Cook, who belonged to a different gang. Lawsuit: Prison guards deleted beating video | wcnc.com Lanesboro Correctional Institution is a state men's prison in Polkton, North Carolina, first opened in January, 2004 and operated by the North Carolina Department of Public Safety Adult Corrections.As one of the state's four largest prisons, the official capacity is 1,800 prisoners. Walls testimony was brief and he did not elaborate on the hidden weapons. Surveillance video shows two of the attackers meeting with a unit manager shortly before the attack.. Peguese resigned from the system in May 2013, while he was under investigation, said Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Pamela Walker. They entered their dogs in fights and watched them die. Located in Polkton, about 45 miles east of Charlotte, Lanesboro has repeatedly drawn scrutiny after violence, contraband smuggling and allegations of improper conduct by corrections officers. Lock That explanation didnt make sense to Bridges. How serious Parsons was about keeping contraband out of the prison remains unclear. Then Wall said, They have nothing to worry about because if I wanted to get anyone, I could get them touched from the outside, the letter states. That works out to about one officer for every 29 inmates. Official websites use .gov In such situations inmates will sometimes send associates to threaten the officers, or even assault them. Officer, two inmates assaulted and injured at Lanesboro prison | Rock September 2016 - Inmates stabbed a sergeant and a lieutenant at the prison, and hit two other officers with a broom handle. February 2017 - Former officer Evangeline Hunt was charged with smuggling in drugs and other contraband for inmates. He joined the Folk Nation at age 16, was convicted of damaging property soon afterward, and later committed armed robbery, kidnapping and more than a dozen other crimes. This sprawling complex of concrete and barbed wire in Anson County holds 1,800 inmates, including more than 350 men convicted of murder and 150 convicted of rape. In an email to the Observer, state prison leaders said they have no evidence to support that conversations and gestures with inmates seen in the surveillance video are anything other than normal discussions with the inmate population.. Starting in November 2013, more than 800 inmates at the prison were put on lockdown for several months after an attack injured a corrections officer. A third inmate involved in the altercation that day Julio Alberto Zelaya-Sorto pleaded guilty last month to assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. As alleged in the indictment, as a correctional officer, Blythers duties included the supervision of inmates, and ensuring safe, secure and orderly prison operations. The man turns and looks directly into the room. News anchor Fred Shropshire is leaving Charlotte station WCNC. The military was given full command of the prison when arriving about 2:30 P.M..[4] Though the director wanted to negotiate with the prisoners by a megaphone, he was held back by his staff since the police almost crushed him. David Mitchell, a Harley-riding former Navy officer brought in to run the prison in 2014, was attacked three times in his first eight months once stabbed in the neck by an inmate wielding a dagger fashioned from melted plastic. Officers found Dwyer dead at 10:15. Inmates at this prison are kept under close watch and have committed very serious crimes. Dawe, whose group shares research to help correctional officers, said that prison leaders who operate without sufficient staff "roll the dice with people's lives.". in Justice Studies and M.S. Four correctional officers at a North Carolina prison were hospitalized Thursday after they were stabbed by several inmates, officials said. Then they returned to D pod, the unit where they lived. Nikki Haley will be at Horry-Georgetown Technical College on March 13, a month after she launched her White House bid. Ballistic evidence indicated that 515 bullets were found in the prisoners. Another was criminally charged with bringing heroin to a prisoner. In January, police and prosecutors teamed up with the prisons new administrator, John Herring, to begin criminally charging inmates caught with weapons. Why would someone working in a prison give someone who is suspected of being involved in a murder a be quiet sign? Roberts said in an interview with the Observer. Turner, 35, a convicted murderer nicknamed Thug Life, has served most of his 21-year prison sentence. The confrontation began at about 8:30 a.m., when an inmate assaulted another inmate at the prison in Anson County, according to a statement from N.C. Director of Prisons Kenneth Lassiter. In February, the FBI charged former Lanesboro officer Evangeline Hunt with smuggling in drugs and other contraband for inmates. [6], By the end of the day, 111 prisoners were dead; and 37 more were injured. He stretches his arms wide above his head, then lowers them and covers his mouth with both hands. Alex Murdaugh sentenced to life in prison for murders of wife, son in June 2021, Get ready to change your clocks. But Daniel Roberts, one of the attorneys, told a judge at a court hearing that the videos and other evidence suggest prison officials either sanctioned the attack or looked the other way. NC prison was understaffed when Sgt. Meggan Callahan was beaten - WBTV Multiple attempts to reach Wall and Peguese including visits to their last known addresses in Anson County were unsuccessful. To investigators and the killers lawyers, his meaning seems clear: The man making that gesture isnt another inmate. Tony Underwood, who headed the Charlotte areas SBI office at the time, said hes still troubled by what investigators learned about Walls relationship with inmates. He did not respond. [18] Another prison manager in that cramped office at the time told investigators that she was not paying attention as Wall spoke to the gang members, Bridges said. Other prisoners were killed by police dogs. Meggan Callahan was beaten to death, Medical Marijuana bill passes NC Senate; some cannabis supporters against bill, 8-year-old helps raise money for favorite Waffle House worker in need of car, PLAN AHEAD: Latest Weather Forecast Video. Bridges said she reviewed hours of surveillance video and saw that inmates frequently visited the office of an assistant prison manager a practice that she believed posed a danger to officers. He pleads with two other inmates to lend him a weapon. NC sergeant killed by inmate worked in understaffed prison | Charlotte FBI Arrests Corrections Officer For Smuggling A Controlled Substance At ", "The inmates literally say, 'You all are understaffed, so if we wanted to, we could overtake this prison.' Roberts, one of Vazquezs attorneys, said he was surprised to see how freely inmates at Lanesboro were allowed to roam the prison. 227 West Trade St. Later that afternoon, Wall arrived at the Lanesboro parking lot, according to a prison document. By Ames Alexander, Gavin Off and Elizabeth Leland. The crackdown has reduced assaults, a DPS spokesman said. Prisons to weaken correctional officer vetting, critics says A fellow prisoner, Joel Corto Ortiz, pleaded guilty to felony assault with a deadly weapon for stabbing Christopher Cook, another inmate who was seriously injured in the fight. But only one shank was recovered. ) or https:// means youve safely connected to the .gov website. Officials: Lanesboro guard smuggled heroin for inmate And we don't have enough staff to fight back.". CHARLOTTE, N.C. A federal grand jury sitting in Charlotte has indicted Erice Lemond Blyther, 46, of Hoffman, N.C., for smuggling a controlled substance at Lanesboro Correctional Institution while employed as a correctional officer. They are joined by a third Latino gang member, Gregorio Vazquez, who is in prison for second-degree murder. Cook, the target of the 2012 attack, was released from prison in March. A spokesman for the N.C. Department of Corrections says two inmates were taken to the hospital. He died helping me, Cook wrote in a letter to the Observer. It was especially heartbreaking for me to see you go in the media from being a grieving father who lost a wife and a son to being the person indicted and convicted of killing them, Judge Clifton Newman said to Alex Murdaugh Friday. [22][23] The court judged that the massacre was an act of self-defense and that there was a lack of evidence to link the individual officers to the individual killings. (Parsons) told me I couldnt say anything about another sergeant bringing in marijuana, Wilburn testified. Friends and family described Juan Ortiz-Castillo as very jealous of his wife, according to police. Blyther is charged with use of interstate facility to facilitate bribery, which carries a maximum prison term of five years and a $250,000 fine; extortion under color of official right, which carries a maximum prison term of 20 years and a $250,000 fine; and possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, which carries a maximum prison term of 10 years and a $250,000 fine. All charges in the indictment are allegations. April 2011 - Richard Neely, a former top administrator at Lanesboro, was charged with felony obstruction of justice following allegations that he destroyed video footage that might have shown officers using excessive force in a fight with inmates. Minutes before the Sept. 28, 2012, assault that killed Wesley Turner, two inmates involved visited the office of an assistant unit manager at the Anson County prison, State Bureau of Investigation agents say. Most (of the prisons officers) are good, hard-working folks, said Underwood, the SBI supervisor. That was one of three times inmates attacked Mitchell. But while North Carolina typically hires about 1,800 to 2,000 prison officers per year, it usually loses about that many as well. The prison has a staff complement of 403 employees including correctional officers, administrators, food service, medical, dental and maintenance workers. Lanesboro has a standard operating capacity of 864 close-custody male inmates, with 128 segregation cells and 8 health care beds. In my opinion, it didnt seem logical to hide them in the ceiling, she said. Ortiz and Vazquez didnt respond to the Observers requests for information about the case. Now comes the gesture. Prison officials investigated the murder, but refused to provide the Observer their report. Western North Carolina An official website of the United States government. Staff researcher Maria David and David Raynor of The (Raleigh) News & Observer contributed. Bridges and a prison captain searched the ceiling and found videos of prison fights, nine rods, a long metal shank and three bloody shanks. Then shelter shared desperate plea, What to Watch Friday: Dateline and 20/20 update Murdaugh murder trial coverage, Mail carrier cant believe his eyes after seeing NC lottery win. The winner, from Charlotte, took her prize as a $600,000 lump sum, officials said. By Ames Alexander - aalexander@charlotteobserver.com. He sued and won a $10,000 settlement from the state. In a cell block inside one of the states most dangerous prisons, an inmate stabs a rival gang member over and over, 13 times. Two other inmates involved in the gang-related fight that day Julio Alberto Zelaya-Sorto and Joel Corto Ortiz also pleaded guilty to felonies and had up to four and five years, respectively, added to their prison sentences. Just out of view, in the lower right-hand corner of the video, a second fight erupts. Two state investigators said they reached the same opinion. According to Acree, the prison is temporarily locked down while an investigation begins.
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